In a country where almost every payment moment still triggers the familiar question — “cash or transfer?” — Nigeria’s financial habits remain a blend of tradition and rapid digital evolution. Even with the surge in fintech adoption over the past decade, cash continues to dominate everyday transactions, while bank transfers, USSD, and cards fill in the gaps of a gradually modernising system.
Yet a new wave of fintech ambition is trying to push the market one step further: from transfers to true contactless payments.
That’s the direction two-year-old startup CashAfrica is pursuing, as co-founders Malik Asamu and Bello Opeyemi position the company as a foundational layer for tap-to-pay infrastructure in Nigeria. Their long-term belief is simple but ambitious — that tapping a phone or card could eventually feel as routine as sending a bank transfer.
Building the rails for tap-to-pay adoption
Rather than competing head-on with consumer wallets or banks, CashAfrica is focused on becoming the backend infrastructure that enables contactless payments across financial institutions and fintech platforms.
This approach relies heavily on partnerships, which the startup considers central to scaling adoption. One of its earliest pilots came through a collaboration with PalmPay, where CashAfrica deployed tap-to-pay functionality across 1,000 POS terminals in 2025.
Another major integration is with ChamsSwitch, which handles switching and settlement for transactions routed through CashAfrica’s system. Beyond technical support, the partnership is also designed to strengthen regulatory confidence and reassure traditional financial institutions about compliance readiness.
As Asamu explained:
“A lot of the banks and institutions we’re partnering or looking to partner with, like PalmPay, Kuda, Zenith, and UBA, are institutions managing 15 to 30 million users. When banks of that scale consider deploying a new and innovative infrastructure, compliance is non-negotiable. They need to be certain that whatever they are putting in front of their customers meets the highest regulatory standards.”
That compliance angle is not just operational — it is also strategic. CashAfrica believes strong regulatory alignment could make fundraising easier and help position it as a credible alternative infrastructure layer for global-style payment systems like Google Pay and Apple Pay in the Nigerian market.
The startup has already attracted backing, including undisclosed investment from Timothy Draper via the Draper University Founder Residency Programme in 2025, as well as funding support from the Afropreneur Angel Group earlier this year.
The push to make tap-to-pay feel normal
Contactless payments are not new globally, but in Nigeria they remain underused despite growing availability. Many banks now issue NFC-enabled cards, and smartphones increasingly support tap-to-pay functionality. Still, actual acceptance at merchant level remains limited.
CashAfrica argues that the problem is less about devices and more about behaviour and exposure.
To expand usage, the company is working with institutions such as United Bank for Africa, Zenith Bank, and Sterling Bank, integrating its APIs into existing banking systems while also maintaining a consumer-facing mobile app.
According to Asamu, the app plays a specific role in onboarding users:
“The consumer app exists primarily as an adoption and onboarding layer. It allows users to easily experience tap-to-pay by linking cards or funding wallets, while also helping drive awareness around contactless payments generally,” Asamu notes.
While NFC-enabled devices are often seen as a barrier in emerging markets, CashAfrica believes that perception is shifting.
“From our experience, device availability is becoming less of a barrier than many people assume. The bigger challenge is user behaviour and awareness. Once users experience the speed and convenience of tap-to-pay, adoption tends to become much easier.”
Since launching, the company says it has processed over ₦2 billion through its infrastructure — an early indicator of traction in a still-nascent segment.
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| CashAfrica co-founders Malik Asamu (CEO) and Bello Opeyemi (CTO) |
Nigeria’s payments ecosystem is already one of the most competitive in Africa. Consumers have grown comfortable with instant transfers, while fintech giants such as OPay, PalmPay, Moniepoint, and Kuda have built strong merchant and user networks over the past several years.
On the infrastructure side, established players like Interswitch and Flutterwave already power large-scale card processing, merchant acquiring, and cross-border payment systems.
Rather than displace these incumbents, CashAfrica is positioning itself as a specialised layer focused narrowly on contactless payments infrastructure. Its revenue model is usage-based, charging financial institutions for API calls routed through its system.
This positioning allows the startup to scale alongside banks and fintechs without the heavy burden of consumer acquisition — a significant advantage in a market where trust and distribution networks take years to build.
Regulation, behaviour, and the long road to adoption
The regulatory environment has already started to evolve in favour of contactless payments. The Central Bank of Nigeria released formal guidelines for contactless payments in 2023, providing a clearer framework for deployment.
Still, regulation alone does not guarantee adoption. Cash and transfers remain deeply embedded in daily commerce, largely because they require minimal infrastructure and are already universally understood by merchants.
Contactless payments introduce new dependencies — NFC-enabled devices, compatible terminals, and merchant education — all of which take time and coordination to scale.
Even so, CashAfrica believes early positioning matters more than immediate dominance. The company is essentially betting that once the ecosystem matures, the winners will already be the ones powering the infrastructure underneath.
For now, the strategy is deliberate: build quietly, expand partnerships, and wait for behaviour to catch up with technology.